Kindred Chief Executive Officer Paul J. Diaz and President and Chief Operating Officer Benjamin A. Breier addressed participants at Kindred’s Fifth Annual Clinical Impact Symposium by painting a portrait of where Kindred is now, and where the company is going over the next several years, as the American healthcare landscape continues to change.

“We are seeing rapid change in the way healthcare is delivered in this country,” said Diaz. Delivering high quality, low-cost care, reducing rehospitalizations and adapting to new payment models that focus on a patient’s entire episode of care are the orders of the day.

As the nation’s largest diversified provider of post-acute care services, Kindred, which cared for over half a million patients last year alone, is well-positioned to meet these challenges.

Diaz outlined Kindred’s three general goals:

In every site of service we have a promise and obligation to deliver the best care we can at the lowest cost

Lower healthcare costs by reducing lengths-of-stay in acute care hospitals and throughout an episode of care

Participate in the development of new care delivery and payment models

And then there is the human side. Unlike our colleagues in short-term acute care hospitals, who are typically only with their patients for two to three days, Kindred clinicians and staff have the opportunity to build relationships with patients and their families over a longer term, caring for them and getting them home or to a lower level of care, Diaz said.

To the symposium’s clinician participants, he offered thanks.

“You are touching millions of people because each patient has several family members behind them,” Diaz said. “I’d like to share a moment of pride – you are getting people home, and getting them well.”

Breier gave nods to each Kindred Healthcare division and the contributions they make. The Nursing Center Division, which has seen some consolidation recently but which continues to provide important care to patients and to residents who call Kindred facilities home. RehabCare, the fabric that weaves throughout the company as therapists deliver care in facilities across the continuum. The Hospital Division, which continues to show year-over-year improvements in quality outcomes. Kindred at Home and the Care Management Division, which are seeing exponential growth as need for those services grows.

He urged team members to be mindful of the patient’s growing interest and role in his or her own healthcare choices.

“More and more of these folks want choices, to be in charge of their healthcare destiny, and they want to be home,” he said. “As a company that takes care of an aging population, we need to be front and center. We have been an innovator – with our care management division, our investment in clinical systems, process development and care coordination, and we’re really in a position to build a better mousetrap.”

Kicking off the next two days of debate, discussion and engagement, Diaz got back to Kindred’s best resource – its people.

“Today is my favorite day in the Kindred calendar,” he said. “We get to celebrate you all.”

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